Midnight Dread
by AngelSlayer135
Summary: The Teen Titans suffer through nightmares just like any other person would. Their nightmares just tend to be on level of terror above the average citizen.


Midnight Dread

***I do not own the Teen Titans, if I did then there would have been more character development in the television show***

Despite what the population of Jump City thinks the Teen Titans do in fact sleep, although some days it doesn't seem like it. With being on call 24/7 and a large portion of crime taking place at night the Titans do not have much time to rest. When they do pleasant dreams seldom pay a visit.

Cyborg's dreams were often of an accident that had changed his life. They were of a mother's love then replaced with a father's madness. The warmth skin replaced with the cold of machinery. Flesh and blood turned to circuitry and steel.

Sometimes on the truly bad nights it would go even further, free will being converted into programmed logic. His personality, hopes, dreams, loves, hates, and even his memories all just created to give him the illusion of being human, only to have it taken away when it was deemed to be irrelevant.

Then there were the dreams, no nightmares would be a better description, involving his friends. It would start with something simple, like replacing a finger or patch of skin lost in battle. But that would quickly escalate. Soon he would be replacing limbs lost, given in order to protect the civilians of the city they had sworn to protect. No matter how it began it would always end the same, his friends sharing his fate. The result would be five completely cybernetic Titans, forever serving the city to the point of giving up everything that made them individuals.

Of all the dreams that plagued him though, one always stood above the rest. It would start on a battle field, such as a bank robbery or a hostage rescue, though everything would go terribly wrong. The cybernetic teen would hear a voice over his radio system. Sometimes it would be Slade, other times Brother Blood, and occasionally just a sinister voice not linked to any particular villain, but the command was always the same. The order would simply be "Kill them" and he would. First he would crush Robin's skull, or maybe snap Raven's neck, either way he would be forced to watch in horror as his body, refusing his own control, would murder his team with brutal efficiency.

He would wake up the next morning with the images playing through his systems as he rushed to delete them before the images become stuck in his human memories as well.

Starfire's nightmares began when she had been sold into slavery. Being from a warrior culture she had been used to the death and horrors of combat and thus was less affected than the other titans were by loss. Instead her fears, and thus dreams, often revolved around captivity and the loss of her freedom.

Her nights were spent being forced to watch those she cares about die while she would live on. To be denied a warriors death and instead to watch everyone else receive that honor.

The escalation would be much the same but instead she would be completely removed from the battle that the others would fall during. Instead she would be forced to watch them die, rather than be with them during their final moments.

The worst nightmares, though, would follow confrontations with her sister, Blackfire. These nights would find her sitting on a throne, as a dark and terrible queen. With her power she would conquer worlds eventually even Earth itself. With this conquest she would force her former teammates, and family, into the slavery she was once forced to endure and suffer through. Though with this position of power she would be forever alone, unable and unwilling to trust anyone.

With Beast Boy the dreams would often be of his past. Watching his mother and father die every night has become a routine for him. Worse is the idea that it had been his fault, if he would have had control over his powers they would have been saved, at least in his mind.

Some evenings though would have him reliving the time between his parents and the Doom Patrol. Being abused and starved in ways that no person, much less child, should have to go through creates scars that never fully heal.

Often he would simply dream of being alone, to the point where finding another living creature was impossible. This had often been a deep phobia of his, strengthening after the loss of his parents. Often these nights would lead to a slight change in his behavior the following day where he would seek out companionship with the other titans even more than usual.

Nightmares concerning the Doom Patrol themselves were rare, but when they did occur it would be of missions they had undertaken, enemies killed, training to make him into a weapon rather than a person. Those would lead to making the choice between the mission and his team, or family since for him those were the same.

Then there were the days where the teen would be haunted with images of being stuck in one of his animal forms, forced the experience the slow, but inventible loss of himself as the animal instincts took over until it was overpowering and his individuality and personality were no more.

The worst nights, by far, would be those plagued with the memories of 'The Beast'. Watching as the claws he wields tore through the bodies of his friends, hearing their screams of terror, inhaling the scent of fear, blood, and tears. Finally these visions would culminate in the taste of their blood filling his mouth with the richest flavors imaginable.

It was the morning after these nights that would find Beast Boy staying away from the other Titans with fear for their safety, and mistrust in himself.

Most outsiders would assume that Raven would be the Titan most comfortable with the darkness, even her teammates initially assumed that, with all of her meditation, she would be immune to the nightmares that might infect others.

They would be wrong.

Of all the Titans, Raven had the worst dreams. During these moments her mental defenses would weaken, allowing her father to influence her and attempt to make her suffer, to break her will and resolve.

Each night she was forced to watch Azarath burn with her father's rage. She would watch has buildings crumbled, as its inhabitants cried out in pain and anguish as they would be turned to stone and perish in fire.

She would observe herself then, opening the portal for Trigon's invasion of Earth. The horror would only continue as her father would commence the slaughter of the innocent people she had sworn to protect, culminating in the final terrible moment. He would give her the task of slaughtering her friends, and with her demonic side let loose she would gleefully accept and carry out the order.

Worst of all though would be that in the mornings Raven would always awaken with the adrenaline still pumping through her veins and a false sense of power and completeness in her body. This would send a horrific shiver down the young girl's spine and send her running to her bath room for a place to vomit up her disgust in herself and her fate.

It always took Raven about an hour every morning to purge the smell of fire and the taste of brimstone from her senses.

For the other Titans Robin was a fortress of mental and spiritual strength. After all he had been trained by the legendary Batman in the art of feeling no fear, of resisting mental attacks and hardening his physical body to be peak human. Surely he was never haunted by the normal fears in the night as the common person would be.

It was an illusion. Robin's nightmares had started as a child and would only become worse as time had gone on, but the worst of these were always concerning his younger years, back before he had constructed the shields to protect him from his own subconscious.

His nights would be filled with battles that he had failed in, close calls that had almost claimed his life, and the consequences he would face from his mentor afterwards. The endless training of both his body and mind and the berating that he would suffer through for his mistakes.

Then there were the dreams from his childhood, and that fateful day. It was his oldest reoccurring nightmare, after all. Watching his parents fall, and then shortly after he himself falling into the darkness.

Although the Boy Wonder would never admit it to anyone he had developed a fear of both heights and the dark, due to the loss of his parents, and Slade's attempt at revenge involving a chemical hidden in his mask.

Some nightmares he would have originated much later on though. After being informed of Batman's research into the weaknesses of the Justice League Robin had been advised to do the same. His nightmares that followed would include his methods resulting in the death of his teammates.

The worst nights of all though, the ones that would lead to a self imposed training regiment the following day to try and prove himself worthy of leadership, were the ones where he would willingly sacrifice his teammates in order to defeat the villain at hand.

These nights would always end with the same horrific scene. Slade would be dead at his feet, along with his friends who had been sacrificed in order to achieve this goal, and the young man would crouch down to remove the mask. Finally he would see the face of the man who he had been obsessing over. Then after removing the mask Robin would place it on his own face, willingly accepting the fact he had become that which he had truly hated more than anything else.

This pattern would continue on for years, the horrors facing the Titans as they slept, and the unwillingness to face their friends the next morning for fear of being viewed as weak. Never realizing that their teammates suffered the same way that they did, unknowingly connected in their fears.


End file.
